- The U.S. economy grew at a 2% annualized pace in the third quarter, its slowest increase since the end of the 2020 recession.
- Decelerations in consumer spending and residential investment helped keep the number lower.
- Weekly jobless claims fell more than expected last week to a fresh pandemic-era low of 281,000, below the 289,000 estimate.
The U.S. economy grew at a 2% rate in the third quarter, its slowest gain of the pandemic-era recovery, as supply chain issues and a marked deceleration in consumer spending stunted the expansion, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
Gross domestic product, a sum of all the goods and services produced, grew at a 2.0% annualized pace in the third quarter, according to the department's first estimate released Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a 2.8% reading.
That marked the slowest GDP gain since the 31.2% plunge in the second quarter of 2020, which encompassed the period during which Covid-19 morphed into a global pandemic that resulted in a severe economic shutdown that sent tens of millions to the unemployment lines and put a chokehold on activity across the country.
Declines in residential fixed investment and federal government spending helped hold back gains, as did a surge in the U.S. trade deficit, which widened to a near-record $73.3 billion in August.
The drops mostly offset increases in private inventory investment, a meager gain in personal consumption, state and local government spending, and nonresidential fixed investment.
Consumer spending, which makes up 69% of the $23.2 trillion U.S. economy, increased at just a 1.6% pace for the most recent period, after rising 12% in the second quarter.
Spending for goods tumbled 9.2%, spurred by a 26.2% plunge in expenditures on longer-lasting goods like appliances and autos, while services spending increased 7.9%, a reduction from the 11.5% pace in Q2. (J. Cox)
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